


Mister Anderson

by Binary_Sunset



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, F/F, Period-Typical Homophobia, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 15:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10539453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Binary_Sunset/pseuds/Binary_Sunset
Summary: "There was something about Thomas Anderson that Reiner found simply rubbed him the wrong way.The man had never done anything to invoke any ire in him. In fact, Anderson would probably consider him a close friend. They would often spend time together after he got off work (usually a bit later than Reiner by about half an hour). He didn’t find this time particularly unpleasant, but something about the man’s demeanour made him incredibly suspicious."Sometimes, the people we think we know best are actually the ones we know the least.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! To celebrate the long-awaited season 2 of Attack on TItan, here's some garbage I wrote last January for English class. Luckily I'm graduating and the teacher I had no longer works in my school, so I won't be getting any plagiarism accusations any time soon. (For the record, I backlogged the date to better reflect when this was written. This was officially posted on 3 April 2017).
> 
> This is the most hard-fought B- I ever received.

There was something about Thomas Anderson that Reiner found simply rubbed him the wrong way.

The man had never done anything to invoke any ire in him. In fact, Anderson would probably consider him a close friend. They would often spend time together after he got off work (usually a bit later than Reiner by about half an hour). He didn’t find this time particularly unpleasant, but something about the man’s demeanor made him incredibly suspicious.

Not that this was, exactly, an easy time to trust people. It seemed that at least once a week he’d hear news about someone possibly being a red spy or a Soviet sympathiser. It wasn’t that he accused Thomas of being any of those things, but there was definitely fear to be felt. Perhaps Anderson had simply been a lightning rod for that fear. Or, perhaps, Reiner’s instinct was correct and he was someone to be feared.

This was the struggle Reiner faced every time he tried to see his friend. While there wasn’t much logical evidence to support his paranoia--Thomas was, for all intents and purposes, a quite normal man--it was a feeling he just couldn’t shake. If Anderson was, somehow, a red, would he be suspected as well? He didn’t have much to hide, but the idea of being investigated made Reiner’s skin crawl.

Yet he still met with Thomas Anderson after work for coffee every Saturday at a small diner in the business district. The man was usually a few minutes late, so Reiner had grown accustomed to getting some work done in the meantime.

It had been raining something awful that night. Even in the short distance between his office and the diner, Reiner had managed to get soaked through his suit jacket. He’d chosen to hang it and his hat behind his chair and ordered a coffee from a waitress in a pale pink dress.

As expected, Anderson arrived a few minutes late in a navy suit, sopping wet from the rain outside.

At first glance, he’d probably look completely normal to any passerby. His hair was parted to the side with a quiff that barely peaked out from under a fedora that never seemed to leave its perch on top of his head. There was also, Reiner came to notice, something strange about Anderson’s face that he couldn’t exactly put his finger on. When compared to the rest of his body, it just didn’t seem to belong to someone like Anderson. He was very clearly a strong man--he’d fought in the war as a pilot and even had a limp from an injury that never healed--but, for some reason, he didn’t quite have a soldier’s face. At least, not in Reiner’s mind.

The man laughed good-naturedly, water dripping from the brim of his fedora. “Quite the storm out there, huh?” He took a seat across from Reiner. The jacket came off. The hat didn’t.

Despite Reiner’s uneasiness, even he couldn’t doubt that Anderson always had this atmosphere of good humour about him. It was tough to see him as a commie, or even as a soldier for that matter, when in the same room as him. He would always tell jokes and take everything in stride. It made him quite likeable.

Focus. If he were a Soviet spy, this is exactly what he’d want.

The waitress came back with a cup of coffee and set it in front of Reiner. He started to put his papers back into his briefcase.

“Actually, could you make that two?” Anderson asked. “It’s been a bit of a long day.”

Reiner didn’t have to look up to know he was probably flashing her a million-watt smile. He was always smiling at the waitresses at this diner, despite the fact that he was going steady with a girl from the local college. Didn’t know a good thing when he had one, Reiner always thought. You didn’t go around smiling at waitresses when you were dating a girl like Krista Renz.

“How are things with the Mrs.?” Reiner asked, as a way of starting up conversation.

“She’s not quite the Mrs. yet. Though that oughta be one heck of a day.” He laughed again, innocent enough to be hiding something. “Like I said, we’re waiting until she finished up her studies first. They won’t let a married woman get a degree.” He sighed wistfully. “And the way her face lights up when she talks about her art. How could I take that away from her?”

Reiner balanced a cigarette between his teeth and lit the end with a match. “Aren’t you worried about some man getting his hands on your girl?”

“She goes to a girls’ college,” he said bluntly before taking a sip of his coffee. “I doubt I have very much competition.”

That was another thing he found suspicious about Anderson. His girlfriend seemed to almost completely run things. She seemed determined to get an education, despite the fact that most women only went to college if they didn’t already have a man out of high school and dropped out as soon as they were wed.

Yet, he was determined to honour his girlfriend’s wishes and let her pursue her education. Although he seemed to be completely unaffected by this, and even spoke highly of it, Reiner still felt as though he was letting the girl walk all over him.

Anderson checked his watch. “I’m meeting Krista in half an hour. Sorry to cut things short.” He put on his suit jacket and reached into the pocket, dropping a few (soaking wet) bills on the table to pay for the coffee he’d barely drank.

Reiner flattened them out. Three dollars. Enough to cover both cups of coffee and tip the waitress.

  * ••



In the days since the rainstorm, things had cleared up significantly. There were only a few, wispy clouds in the sky and the temperature had been warm enough to dry out the waterlogged soil.

With this in mind, it was no surprise that Reiner found himself walking through the park on his way home. He quite liked the way the greenery of the park seemed to contrast against the harsh, urban angles of city life, and it was always nice to appreciate a different side of things.

But it was something out of place that caught his eye that day. It was a small black book, lying innocuously on a nearby bench.

It probably shouldn’t have been of any particular interest to him. It was worn and looked like it had seen quite a lot in its time, but it was bound well enough to withstand the beating it had clearly taken.

Carefully, he picked it up, turning to the inside cover. Written in tight, neat handwriting was a quick message:

_ Property of Krista Renz _

_ Please return to Sina College art department _

He probably shouldn’t be invading Krista’s privacy like this. He’d never properly seen anything she’d drawn, and now that the temptation was in front of him, he found his curiosity piqued.

He flipped through quickly, figuring as long as he didn’t stare at anything for a particularly long time, he wasn’t  _ really _ doing anything too bad. The sketchbook was dense with material: objects drawn at various different angles and shaded so realistically he could’ve sworn he could pick it off the page, faceless figure drawings, paradoxically detailed and vague, and the occasional pre-painting sketch. Krista was clearly very talented. He found himself wondering why, exactly, he’d initially thought it was strange for Anderson to allow her education and an opportunity to grow.

Reiner found himself stopping towards the middle of the book and just stared for a moment. It was a portrait of a girl, about in her mid-twenties, wrapping up her knuckles for a fight.

The application was flawless, he almost felt like he knew the girl simply by staring at her picture. But what drew him the most to it, and what he found perplexing, was the sheer fury in her eyes. She was not only  _ ready _ to fight, but  _ willing _ . A warrior.

Reiner snapped the sketchbook shut. He had time before he had to be home. Sina College was only about a half hour out of the city. He might as well return it to her.

•••

He was surprised to see just how open Sina’s campus was. It was nestled away in a small college town, no gates or bars keeping it from the outside world. And yet, he felt very  _ wrong _ stepping onto the campus. He was here with the purest of intentions, of course, but there was still something about being at a girl’s school that made him feel dirty. He had no idea how Anderson could do this so often.

He’d never really studied the layout of Sina, but he was sure he could just ask someone for directions. The art department couldn’t be too difficult to find. The whole campus was rather small when compared to his own alma mater.

Though, perhaps, he wouldn’t have to. Under a tree by the entrance sat Krista Renz, who was chatting with another girl. She had something caked under her fingernails, graphite or charcoal from some art project, he guessed. Her elegant hands were placed to her mouth, quiet concern written all over her face.

It really didn’t suit her.

He’d only heard a little piece of their conversation, but he could see why Krista would be worried.

“--a little worried about my boss. I don’t think I can trust him with that kind of information,” the other girl was saying as he listened in.

It took him a moment to realise that she was the girl from Krista’s sketchbook. She was more subdued and ladylike now, worry written all over her face, but the resemblance was uncanny. Krista really had managed to capture her on that page.

The artist picked her fingernails and looked as though she wanted to say something, but her eyes met Reiner’s and lit up.

The other girl’s mouth just flattened, a flicker of something passing across her face. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was.

“What are you doing out here? I thought work would’ve kept you for some time.” She smiled, all the concern seemingly gone from her face. Something about it filled his veins with fire.

“I was just in the park and saw that you left it there, so I figured it wasn’t too far out of my way to bring it back.” He held out the book to Krista, who accepted it graciously.

The other girl simply crossed her arms and leaned back against the tree, saying nothing. No friendly greeting, no smile in his direction, just a stern silence. Perhaps she just felt it wasn’t her place to be speaking to a stranger. Something about her gaze, however, made him squirm, like she was somehow judging his every move. She reminded him, almost, of a hawk, intently watching its prey.

Reiner took a moment to glance at his watch. “I should really be getting home soon. It’s getting a bit late.”

Krista smiled, her grip visibly tightening on the sketchbook. “Thank you for bringing this back to me. I was afraid I’d lost it.”

The other girl’s face betrayed no emotion as she just watched him in silence, the sheer unpleasantness of her aura constantly telling his mind to  _ leave _ .

Getting in his car and leaving Krista and that other girl behind felt like dropping a massive weight off his shoulders.

•••

Erwin Smith was one of the most respected lawyers around. So, naturally, when Colossal industries had a lawsuit filed against them, he was hired.

It was for this reason that Reiner found himself in a large office building, surrounded by grey walls and blank carpet. He eventually came to a door labelled “Erwin Smith” and stepped inside.

The waiting room just outside Smith’s office was well-lit by a large window and a handful of lamps that dotted the room.

There was a secretary, arranging some files and flipping through notebooks as though looking for something. When Reiner shut the door behind him, she looked up.

It was the girl from Sina College who’d been talking with Krista. She had a cigarette between her lips, which she promptly took a drag from and breathed out a stream of white smoke. “Are you here for the twelve o’clock appointment?” she asked. Although he could tell that she was trying to be cordial, there was still a surprising bite to her tone. The unpleasantness he’d felt before, it seemed, had never left.

So, this was the boss she’d mentioned before. He’d heard Smith could be a ruthless guy and a bit difficult to work for, but untrustworthy? It wasn’t a word Reiner had ever heard thrown around. Then again, he’d only ever really known the man by reputation.

“Yes, that’s me. I showed up a bit early,” he explained.

She snuffed out her cigarette in the ashtray on her desk. “Unfortunately, you might have to be waiting a bit longer than that. It seems Smith’s current meeting is going on for longer than expected.” She looked towards the door, her mouth pressed into a flat line.

“Do you know how long it’ll be?” he asked.

The secretary shrugged. “That’s anyone’s guess, honestly. Those two sure do like to argue.” She turned back to her work without another word.

“So, how do you know Krista?” he asked after a moment’s pause.

The secretary looked up for a moment, another expression flickering across her face, before returning to her work. “She’s an old friend of mine. We’ve known each other for a few years.”

Reiner really didn’t like the noncommittal answer, but he let it slide. It was clear, at least to him, that the secretary preferred to keep to himself. “I’m just curious because I know her boyfriend, and I don’t think she’s ever mentioned you,” he prodded.

“Did she ever bring up an Ymir Carsten?” she asked, not looking up from her filing.

Reiner blinked. “What?”

“My name is Ymir Carsten. I don’t think I ever told you.” Her tone was sharp and slightly annoyed.

“Well, I still don’t think she ever mentioned you,” he pushed.

“Why does any of that matter?” she countered, raising her voice. It was subtle, but not enough to go unnoticed. “It’s not like she’s gonna constantly sing my praises with that goddamn  _ man _ -”

The door slammed open, loud enough to cut off Ymir. Erwin Smith stood behind it. His large, imposing figure probably should’ve been threatening, but he was thankful for the break in tension in the room.

Another man (one of Smith’s clients, Reiner guessed) left the office and disappeared through the waiting room door.

“My apologies for the delay. I should have informed you that my previous meeting was going a bit longer than scheduled.” Reiner would be lying if he said he didn’t notice the man exchange a momentary glance with his secretary.

He got up and dusted off his suit. “No, I’m afraid there’s nothing to worry about. I showed up early with the intention of waiting.” He smiled and held out his hand to Erwin, his gaze flickering over towards Ymir.

She was about to say something about Anderson. Reiner got the feeling she didn’t particularly like the man. Perhaps he was right in being suspicious of him after all.

•••

Perhaps the first few raindrops on the brim of Reiner’s hat should have served as a warning. It so rarely meant good weather in his case, especially after a few dry, April days. Yet through no one’s fault but his own, he found himself in a far corner of the city. Rainstorms like this usually lasted until the end of the day, maybe well into the night.

He needed to take shelter. The last thing he wanted was to catch a cold out in this weather.

Unfortunately, this was probably the last place he wanted was to get caught in a rainstorm. He didn't really know his way around these streets, and the pounding rain didn't make navigating them much easier. To make matters worse, it was at least an hour’s walk home.

He took a quick glance at a street sign. Maple Ave. Didn't Anderson live around here? Perhaps he could locate his apartment building. Sure, Reiner’s intrusion would be unexpected, but surely Anderson would understand. He'd lived here enough to know how brutal the rain could be.

Locating a large, grey apartment building in a sea of large, grey buildings while a thick haze blocked his vision was much easier said than done. It took a few tries, walking into various buildings and checking their directories for a Thomas Anderson, but he’d finally found it.

After ringing and being let in, he made his way up to the third floor and knocked on the door.

“I'm coming, just gimme a second.” That was odd. It certainly didn't sound like Anderson’s voice. It was harsher, and somehow a bit more high-pitched than he remembered.

He double checked the apartment number. It was certainly the right one.

Yet, somehow, the woman who answered the door made him question it further. He immediately recognised her as Erwin’s secretary.

Ymir put a hand to her mouth. “Oh no,” she muttered, staring wide-eyed at the other man.

This was Anderson’s apartment. He was sure of it. The directory had said it was Anderson’s and he’d spent time here not too long ago. Then why did this woman answer the door?

Why was there a woman in Anderson’s house? A woman who was definitely  _ not _ the one he was dating? Unless…

His blood began to boil at the thought of it.

Of course it would make sense for Anderson to be having an affair with Ymir. It would explain her bitterness and distaste for the man. She hated him for what he was doing to Kista, but would be so in love with him that she couldn’t stop. It sounded almost like something out of a pulp novel.

Krista didn’t deserve to be dating someone who’d treat her this way. She was probably too kind to see it, the poor girl.

Well, if she wouldn’t do anything about it, he’d have to speak up in her defence.

“How  _ dare _ you do this to Krista! She did  _ nothing _ to deserve this!”

Ymir held her hands up in defence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about! I’m not doing  _ anything _ to Krista! She knows about the whole thing! I’d never lie to her like that!”

“I’d doubt she’d approve of her friend sleeping around with her boyfriend!”

Ymir’s look of worry was replaced with confusion. “Sleeping around? What are you--” She paused for a moment, seeming to process the whole thing. “Look, just get inside. I’ll explain everything.”

He followed Ymir into the interior of Anderson’s apartment. She walked surprisingly slowly, even for a woman of her height. It was subtle, and it wasn’t until Reiner was properly walking behind her that he really noticed.

The inside of Anderson’s apartment was just how he remembered it, if a bit messier. He could excuse it: his intrusion was sudden, after all. There was the main sitting room, which was connected to the balcony by two glass doors. There was a kitchenette attached to the room and a door leading to Anderson’s bedroom.

“Look, just sit down and have a smoke, if you’d like. I need to get something.” The woman disappeared into Anderson’s bedroom.

Reiner sat wearily on the couch. There had been a marked change in her demeanor, from bitter and cold to more matter-of-fact. He wasn’t sure he liked it very much.

Still, he struck a match and lit up a cigarette. Would be good to calm the nerves.

It took a few minutes, but Ymir finally came out, wearing Thomas’ beloved fedora.

With her hair gelled like his and her ponytail tucked beneath the hat, she looked almost like a man. In fact, if it wasn’t for the dress she had yet to change out of she would’ve been the spitting image of…

Anderson.

“Normally I’d put on a little foundation too, to cover the fleckles and make me look a bit less baby-faced,” she explained

Reiner just gaped. How didn’t he realise it before? The two had the same eyes, nose, limp, everything.

Honestly, now he just felt like an idiot.

Ymir sat on the couch in front of him, crossing her legs and pulling out a cigarette. She struck a match and lit it. “Just so you know, if word of this gets out, I’ll know it’s you. Krista’s the only other person who knows and she’ll never tell. This whole scheme  _ was _ her idea, after all.”

Reiner narrowed his eyes. “And what if I do tell?”

“I have some friends in some  _ very _ high places who I could call in a few favours from. You know who I work for. And Erwin Smith doesn’t pick just  _ anyone _ to be his secretary, mind you.” She took a drag from the cigarette and looked at Reiner with mock sympathy. “Trust me, if I were you, I wouldn’t mess with the kind of company he keeps.”

The kind of company Erwin Smith keeps. Was she implying…

No, Reiner had been wrong about people being reds before. Still, either it was a well-constructed empty bluff or a serious threat. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to take that chance.

“But why do this? Is it so Krista wouldn’t turn any heads at college? To appease her family? Why not get an actual man to do it? Why lie to everyone like this?”

Ymir closed her eyes and breathed out a puff of smoke. “Because we were already living a lie.”

Reiner shot her a confused glance.

“Let me start at the beginning.” She straightened. “Back during the war I ran a supply plane across the Channel into France. I'm no pilot for the history books or anything, but I enjoyed it enough. That was… until I crashed.”

Her hands tightened around the fabric of her dress. “I didn't think there would be too many storms on the Channel, but it can be pretty unpredictable. I got caught in one, didn't know how to get out of it, and ended up crashing somewhere in Normandy. I was fine, except for my leg, but my plane was totalled. I was hospitalised for several weeks. I actually don't remember most of it. My leg was busted up pretty badly, and they ended up giving me a lot of booze to take the edge off. And maybe a little bit of morphine. The whole thing’s really kind of a blur. But when you're in that much pain and there's so much  _ stuff _ in your system, you start to say things you wouldn't normally. In my case, that happened to include calling the nurse who was tasked with healing me ‘angel’ and ‘goddess’ and ‘light of my life’.” She chuckled, slightly uncomfortable. “I mean, I don’t regret a word of it now that I know the type of person that Krista is, but it wasn't exactly the best impression I could've made.”

She paused for a moment. “I don't remember any of it, but apparently when they set my leg, I made such a fuss about anyone other than Krista touching me that they had to let her do it. Except, she didn't know how to set a fracture that complex, so that's where the limp came from.” She patted her bum leg. “Not that I'm blaming her. It was my own damn fault.

“Anyway, as I was recovering and started started needing less and less help dealing with the pain, I started to have actual conversations with her. She seemed like a really interesting person and I was in that hospital for a few months before I was mobile again. So we had a lot of time to get to know each other. And she was…”

Ymir smiled to herself. “She was incredible. I mean, not just the whole nice girl act you know her by. That Krista’s pretty great too, but once you realise she's more than just a pretty face and a kind smile, you can't be content with that side of her anymore. Just… the way she was able to pass as normal despite her tendencies. I’ve been struggling to do it my entire life, but this girl is a miracle. But once you get past all that and see the mind responsible for all the deception, the mind that has lying down to an art... I mean, I was floored.”

She took another drag from her dwindling cigarette. “And then after that I was deemed unable to fly, so they sent me back home to Wisconsin. A few months later I got a phone call from Krista saying that she was in the neighbourhood and wanted to see me. She told me she was planning on introducing me to her family and would it be okay if I pretended to be a guy so she could claim she was getting married soon. We decided it would only be a one-time thing to dodge questions from her parents. So, Thomas Anderson happened. And then he happened again for Thanksgiving. And then again for Christmas. And then he showed up to her brother’s wedding. After a while, it was just easier to be Thomas some times and Ymir others. Thomas could own his own house, go to movies with his girlfriend. Ymir could show up on campus whenever she wanted and she already had a job. And the rest I think you can guess.”

Reiner balled his fists. “I just don't understand why people like you can't just live normal lives like the rest of us! You're either sneaking around or lying to people! Why can't you just be happy as a housewife like every other woman in this country!”

All the fight he’d seen in her eyes in Krista’s portrait seemed to flicker out and die in an instant. Reiner decided defeat didn’t suit her either. “I went out there. I did my duty. I risked my  _ life _ for this country and now what? I get married to some Tom, Dick, or Harry, move to a neighbourhood where every house looks the same, and raise some ankle biting twerps? I’d go mad!” 

She raised her cigarette to her lips, her tone starting to become more manic. “And could you imagine going into the city one day and seeing Krista on the arm of some Ivy League college kid who probably doesn’t even know how  _ lucky _ he is to have a girl like her? And the kids would say ‘Mommy, who’s that girl you keep staring at?’ That’s the love of your mother’s life, but mommy can’t go and spend time with her because she has to drive you kids everywhere and make jello with those fruit chunks in the middle, and why the heck would you put pear slices in jello and why am I wasting my life cooking and cleaning for a husband I’ve never loved or wanted to be with--” She took a long drag from the cigarette, trying to calm her nerves. She was shaking, whether with fear or anger or just the sheer force of her outburst, Reiner wasn’t sure.

He just stared at her. This woman, whom he’d once simply brushed off as being Erwin Smith’s unpleasant secretary, suddenly felt incredibly, tangibly real to him. There was a part of him that almost wished she didn’t have to be put through this; to have to put up an elaborate ruse just to dodge unwanted questions was rather sad. And the fact that she’d managed to fool him for so long… He didn’t know whether to be impressed or enraged.

He picked neither, the two of them just staring at each other in silence, smoke hanging heavily in the air.

**Author's Note:**

> We were reading The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, and the assignment was to write a Jekyll and Hyde story, so naturally I went with lesbians.
> 
> I have a [tumblr](https://www.aro-ackermans.tumblr.com) where I post SnK whenever I see it, which will hopefully be more often now that the next season is out!
> 
> EDIT: This bitch takes [ commissions](https://aro-ackermans.tumblr.com/post/160970900544/hey-everyone-now-that-i-am-officially-no-longer).


End file.
